President Bush campaigned in the southern state of Arkansas

[00:02.88]where he said the creation of more than 300,000 new jobs

[00:06.01]last month is a positive sign that the economy is growing stronger.

[00:09.43]Job growth is an especially sensitive political issue for the president

[00:13.21]as Democrats blame him for the loss of nearly

[00:15.62]two million jobs since he took office.

[00:17.60]Mr. Bush says he took office during a recession and his record

[00:21.67]tax cuts have put the country back on the path to economic growth.

[00:24.88]He wants Congress to make those cuts permanent while lowering

[00:28.30]health care costs and producing more energy at home.

[00:31.28]"If we want jobs to stay at home, and if we want the job base to expand,

[00:36.11]we have to do something about the cost of healthcare," said Mr. Bush.

[00:38.41]"We need an energy plan in this country. I will tell you,

[00:40.61]it is hard to expand our job base,

[00:42.98]it is hard to keep jobs here at home

[00:45.40]if you are worried about the reliability of electricity

[00:49.10]and if you are worried about finding natural gas at a reasonable price."

[00:52.81]Senator Kerry campaigned in the Midwest state of Ohio

[00:56.30]where more than 170,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost

[00:55.30]during the Bush presidency.

[00:56.53]Mr. Kerry is promising to create 10 million jobs in four years,

[01:00.85]in part, by rolling back tax cuts for

[01:03.33]Americans earning more than $200,000 a year.

[01:06.21]Mr. Kerry says the president's tax cuts unfairly favor

[01:09.70]wealthier Americans and are driving up huge federal deficits.

[01:13.48]"If you are a thoughtful person,

[01:15.79]there is nothing conservative about running up

[01:20.83]deficits as far as the eye can see," he said.

[01:23.02]"There is nothing conservative about piling debt on our children

[01:32.35]and building up the annual interest payments for

[01:35.26]that debt so we can not fund education and health care."

[01:39.04]Senator Kerry criticized the president for not doing enough

[01:42.36]to prevent U.S. companies from using cheaper labor overseas.

[01:45.96]President Bush has branded the Massachusetts Senator

[01:48.62]an economic isolationist who he says would hurt foreign trade.

[01:52.72]"First, we got to make sure that we are confident in trade policy," he added.

[01:55.64]"There are economic isolations that want

[01:57.44]to wall us off from the rest of the world.

[01:59.13]I don't think that makes any sense."

[02:00.82]Senator Kerry told union members in Ohio that

[02:03.74]Americans need and deserve a new economic strategy.

[02:07.63]"When you add up the real deficit of our nation,

[02:10.54]which is all of the dreams and lives that have been hurt,

[02:13.86]add it up and it will be clear that the one person

[02:18.68]in the United States of America who deserves

[02:21.85]to be laid-off is George W. Bush," said Mr. Kerry.

[02:24.76]"And that is what we are going to do."

[02:26.67]Senator Kerry continues to campaign on the economy Wednesday

[02:30.78]with a speech at Georgetown University in Washington.

[02:33.48]President Bush is to spend the rest of the week on his Texas ranch

[02:36.90]before meeting Monday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.